International Journal for Quality Research 8(1) 73–86 ISSN 1800-6450

73

Mukhtar Che Ali 1

Article info:

Received 15.12.2013 Accepted 27.02.2014

UDC – 625.143.2

EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF

INTEGRATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT

SYSTEM IN CONSTRUCTION (QLASSIC)

WITH ISO 9001 QUALITY MANAGEMENT

SYSTEM (QMS)

Abstract: Quality has been identified as one of the

fundamental needs of clients. As such construction projects

that are able to be completed with distinctive quality will definitely enable to delight their customers. In this regard,

Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) has

introduced two quality related programs namely ISO 9001 DIY

Scheme and QLASSIC. The later is essentially a quality

performance assessment tool to evaluate the level of quality of

a building construction work based on quality standards

stipulated in CIS 7:2006. One of the key deliverables of

QLASSIC is QLASSIC Score which denotes the level of quality

of the assessed construction project. Potentially there is a

strong correlation between QLASSIC and ISO 9001 QMS.

However there is lack of knowledge in the industry in

amalgamating QLASSIC with ISO 9001QMS towards attaining high quality performance. Indeed it is noticed that not many

studies have been undertaken in this area. Thus it warrants to

undertake a study that deliberates on the relationship of

practicing ISO 9001QMS with the achievement of QLASSIC

Score. Therefore among the key objectives of this research are

generally to investigate the relationship between practicing

ISO 9001 QMS principles with QLASSIC performance and to

examine the expected business outcomes for ISO 9001 certified

contractors that are able to sustain relatively high QLASSIC

Score. Eventually it is postulated that the output of this

research would enable to elevate the level of quality performance in the Malaysian construction industry.

Keywords: Construction, Contractor, ISO 9001QMS,

QLASSIC, QLASSIC Score, Quality Performance

1. Introduction1

QLASSIC was introduced by Construction

Industry Development Board (CIDB)

1 Corresponding author: Mukhtar Che Ali

email: mukhtar@cidb.gov.my

somewhere in late 90’s which led to the introduction of QLASSIC Guideline.

Eventually in the year 2006, this document

was reviewed and subsequently upgraded to

Construction Industry Standard (CIS) known

as CIS 7:2006 ‘Quality Assessment System

for Building Construction Works’. The main

74

assessment elements in this standard are

adapted from Construction Quality

Assessment System (CONQUAS) practiced

by Building and Construction Authority

(BCA) in Singapore. In lieu of this there are

several similarities in the assessment

structure of these assessment systems.

One of the key deliverables of QLASSIC is

the certificate that signifies the result of the

assessment known as QLASSIC Score. The

later is in percentage of conformance to the

quality standards stipulated in CIS 7:2006.

Thus the QLASSIC Score deemed to indicate the level of quality for a given

construction project. Generally the higher

the QLASSIC Score will proportionately

reflect the higher the quality output of the

assessed construction project. In relation to

this, QLASSIC can be considered as one of

the assessment tools to measure the

effectiveness of the established ISO 9001

QMS. This can be monitored through the

trend analysis of the QLASSIC Scores. If the

said scores fluctuate erratically then it indicates that the established QMS is not

effective. Indeed the incredible amount of

data generated during the QLASSIC

assessment has the potential to be analyzed

to ascertain areas for improvement which

eventually can lead towards continually

improves the quality performance of the

building construction works.

ISO 9001 QMS is the internationally

accepted quality management system. The

current ISO QMS is ISO 9001:2008. This

standard was introduced somewhere in 15th

November 2010 to replace ISO QMS version

2004. The latest ISO 9001 QMS has no

major changes on the standard requirements

but elaborate further clarity on some

elements. One has to remember that ISO 9001 QMS is a generic and prescriptive

management standard. One of the key areas

being emphasized in ISO 9001 QMS is

performance measurement towards continual

improvement (Mukhtar et al., 2010). The

later is stated under several clauses for

instance clause 4.1, clause 5.1, clause 6.1,

clause 8.1 and clause 8.5.1 under ISO

9001:2008 requirements. According to Tsai

(1998), performance measurements can be

financial or non financial. For the case of

QLASSIC, it is a non financial performance

measurement.

Having said the above which leads to several

research questions as follows:

Conformance to which clauses of ISO

9001:2008 can have a significant impact

on QLASSIC Score?

Is there any strong relationship of

practicing principles of ISO 9001 QMS

to the achievement of high QLASSIC

Score?

What are the expected business

outcomes of continuously attaining high

QLASSIC Score?

Can QLASSIC be integrated with ISO 9001 QMS?

2. Literature review

In 1993 Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM) has introduced

the MS ISO 9000, a quality standard system

recognized throughout the world, to the

Malaysian construction industry (Yusoff et

al., 1996; Mokhtar, 1996). Implementation

of ISO QMS in construction has direct

impact in delivering quality deliverables in

construction projects. This is because QMS

emphasized greatly on proper planning, well

organize in optimizing resources, effectively

monitor and control the performance as well as endeavor for continual improvement

which ultimately would delight the customer

(Mukhtar, 2010a). Quality management

provides the culture and climate essential for

innovation and construction innovation

advancement (Djebarni and Eltigani, 1996).

By establishing proper QMS the contractor

is expected to manage systematically the

scope, time, cost and resources in meeting

the project objectives. Consequently it

enable to address some of the major

contemporary issues prevailed in construction industry i.e. work defect, cost

overrun and delay of construction project.

Commonly the parameters used by the ISO

75

9001 certified contractors to indicate their

quality performance are number of client’s

complaints, scoring from customer’s

feedback forms, wastage of materials,

number of defects works, failure in

inspection, failure in testing results etc

(Chen, 2007). Apart from these metrics, QLASSIC Score can also be used to measure

the quality performance in construction

projects.

2.1. Overview Relationship of Quality

Assessment System in Construction

(QLASSIC) and Quality Management

System (QMS) in construction

QLASSIC (CIDB, 2006), was designed and developed to enable the user to achieve any

of the following objectives:

To benchmark the level of quality of the

construction industry in Malaysia

To have a standard quality assessment system for quality of workmanship of

building projects

To assess quality of workmanship of a

building project based on the approved

standards

To evaluate the performance of

contractors based on quality of

workmanship

To compile data for statistical analysis

Basically QLASSIC is an independent

method to assess and evaluate the quality of

workmanship of building projects based on

CIS 7: 2006 document. The later is intended

to complement the normal contractual

drawings and specifications in the project. It

is not intended to be used independently as

working specifications. The contractors have to abide strictly to technical specifications

prepared by the respective consultants.

Where else the Superintendent Officer (SO)

still hold the responsibility to ensure that the

quality of the construction works conforms

to the approved standards, practices,

specifications and drawings. Generally, the

Quality Assessment System for Building

Construction Work covers four main

components as follows:

Structural Works

Architectural Works

Mechanical and Electrical Works

(M&E)

External Works

Each of these components is assigned a

weightage which differ from one category to

another, as shown in Table 1. Among these

building components, noticed that the

architectural work is being allocated

comparatively with a higher weightage.

Since the architectural work is being allocated comparatively with a higher

weightage therefore QLASSIC score broadly

signifies the quality of the finished

construction works. Generally these

weightage are allocated according to the

distribution between the cost proportions of

the four components in the various

categories of building and also preferential is

given to aesthetic consideration.

The QLASSIC assessments are conducted by

the assessors appointed by CIDB. Therefore

QLASSIC can be considered as the third

party assessment. The appointed assessors

will conduct the physical assessments by

using appropriate tools for building

inspection. Marks are being awarded if the

inspected building components comply with

quality acceptance criteria stipulated in CIS 7:2006. These marks under each building

component are then summed up to give a

total quality score in term of percentage

known as QLASSIC Score for the building

project. However, the assessment excludes

works such as piling, foundation and sub-

structure works which are heavily

equipment-based and normally called under

separate contracts or subcontracts.

Even though the application of QLASSIC at

this moment is on voluntary basis however

ISO 9001 certified contractors are

encouraged to adopt it in their established

QMS.

Firstly QLASSIC score can be used as

quality objective to reflect the overall quality

performance of a given construction project.

Secondly the scoring point attained can be

76

used to benchmark project performance of

similar project scope internally and

externally (i.e. among competitors). Thirdly

the trend analysis on QLASSIC scoring

marks can be used to reflect the effectiveness

of the developed QMS. Fourthly by

performing descriptive analysis on the

elements under each component of building

category can assist the contractor to

prioritize the areas that need to be improved.

Table 1. Allocation of weightage for components of the building construction work according to building category

Component

Category A

Landed Housing

Category B

Stratified Housing

Category C

Public Building

Category D

Special Public Building

Structural work (%) 25 30 30 30

Architectural work (%)

60 50 45 35

M&E work (%) 5 10 15 25

External work (%) 10 10 10 10

Total score (%) 100 100 100 100

Hence the introduction of QLASSIC is

expected to address several of the

predominant quality issues that prevailed in

the construction realm (Mukhtar, 2010b).

Indeed according to CIDB (2013), one of the

findings on the impact study of QLASSIC by CIDB (2012), unleashed that 84% of the

respondents agreed that implementation of

ISO 9001 QMS can assist the contractor in

attaining high QLASSIC score.

2.2. The issues and challenges of

implementing Quality Management

System (QMS) in construction

Intense competitive pressures in the

construction market demand new ways to

improve performance and better satisfy

clients’ needs (Xiao and Proverbs, 2002).

The later interest lies on the exceptional

quality of construction projects. However,

construction quality may sometimes be taken

for granted and insufficient attention may be

paid to it. One of the ways to attain quality in

construction is by embracing a systematic

quality management system (QMS) whereby

an internationally accepted QMS regime is ISO 9001 QMS. ISO 9000 compliance is

rapidly becoming prerequisite for

construction companies seeking contract and

a competitive position in the construction

market (Xiao and Proverbs, 2002).

Notwithstanding the facts on the benefits of

embracing quality management system in

construction ironically majority of our local

contractors are not favorable in getting

themselves certified to ISO 9001

certification.

As at March 2011, a total of about 66,210

contractors have been registered with CIDB

(CIDB, 2012). Generally contractors are

graded according to their technical capability

and financial capacity. It started with lowest

grade known as G1 to the highest grade registered as G7. From this total number of

contractors almost 4,668 are G7 contractors.

Taking into account of 4,668 G7 contractors

about 1,888 of them (40%) are certified to

ISO 9001:2008. This showed that even the

highest grade of contractors is relatively low

in their interest in getting them certified to

ISO 9001 certification. Thus there are few

prevalent issues and challenges prevailed in

driving the contractors in pursuing for ISO

9000 QMS certification.

Generally the contractors are preoccupied

with the perception that practicing ISO 9000

QMS tend to increase unnecessary project

management cost. The establishment and

maintenance of a documented QMS can be a

costly undertaking (Beattie and Sohal, 1999). This statement seems to concur with Mallak

et al. (1997), also address the question of

77

costs, believing ISO 9000 to be costly and

time consuming. In Malaysia (Rosli et al.,

2009) the contractors preferred to appoint

consultant to develop their respective QMS

which would involve an expenditure of

approximately RM 30,000. This is inline by

the statement issued by Douglas el at. (2003), that an added cost when

implementing ISO 9000 is the cost of

consultants. Having said that the cost of

development of QMS may vary which

depend on the size of the company and the

level of complexity of project normally

executed by them. Inevitably the contractors

have to invest in getting them certified to

ISO 9000 QMS. However they failed to

understand that by having a proper QMS

would enable them to minimize defects

which eventually would reduce the cost of rework. That phenomenon could bring

saving to them in the future. The saving

accumulated over the years may result in

covering all the expenses in getting the

mentioned certification. This is one of the

challenges that need to overcome.

Another negative perception on ISO QMS as

found by Kong (2010), are more time spent

in management, more paper work and

increased bureaucracy. Another deterrent

factor for the contractors in getting ISO

QMS certification is the no security in

securing the next projects. The contractors

have to bid for projects. They will be

awarded with projects if they are successful

in their bidding process. Hence there is no

assurance of continuity in getting the next projects after completion the project in hand.

There are extreme cases where the

contractors are unable to secure any projects

within few years. In this scenario would

create unnecessary financial burden for the

contractors to maintain their ISO QMS

certification.

These are some of the issues and challenges

encountered in the construction landscape in

an effort to implement QMS. It deemed to

construe that implementing ISO QMS can

cause additional burden to the management

rather than ensuring the improvement in the

quality performance. Taking cognizance of

these challenges thus it warrant a more

aggressive effort in educating the players in the construction industry on the importance

of adopting ISO QMS as way forward for

quality enhancement.

2.3. Overall observation on

implementation of QLASSIC

As mentioned earlier QLASSIC program

was introduced in late 2006. For a period of 5 years almost xxx projects were being

assessed by QLASSIC. From Figure xxx

exhibits that there is an incremental

increased in the average QLASSIC Score

from 60 % in year 2007 to 70 % in year

2011. In term of number of applications

there is an indication of gradual increase

from year 2007 to year 2011. In the year

2007 the number of applications recorded is

40 and in 2011 the number of application

recorded is 122, an increase of almost 200

%. This shows that the demand for QLASSIC grows exponentially. If this

momentum of demand is able to sustain then

it is expected relatively high number of

applications in years to come.

78

No of

Projects

4

1

4047

79

117122

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

73.0%

60.0%

65.0%

70.0% 69.4%70.2%

Average QLASSIC Score

Total Projects = 406

Figure 3. QLASSIC Score from the year 2006 till year 2011 (Mukhtar, 2012)

After almost 5 years implementation of

QLASSIC, obviously its presence has

generated some kind of impact to the

construction industry. On that note that in

the year 2012, CIDB has conducted a study

to ascertain the impact on implementation of

QLASSIC. Several of key findings from the

impact study (CIDB, 2013), are as follows:

Majority applicants (76%) of QLASSIC

are companies which have been

awarded with ISO 9001 QMS. This

indicates that majority of the applicants

were contractors and developers that are certified to ISO 9001 QMS which were

interested to measure the level of quality

of their construction output.

Majority of the respondents (84%)

opined that practicing ISO 9001 QMS

can influence in achieving QLASSIC

Score.

QLASSIC has proven to help improve

the performance of a construction

project. The study showed that majority

of respondents (85%), agreed with the statement that QLASSIC helps to

improve the quality of a project

QLASSIC Score can also increase

company marketability. A major

percentage of respondents (67%) agreed

that the QLASSIC effectiveness help to

increase a company’s marketability

Overall, the QLASSIC implementation

is well received by the developers and contractors, whereby the research results

showed that majority of the respondents,

who were formerly involved with

QLASSIC, would like to continue

practicing QLASSIC in the future.

Based on the above findings one can deduce that generally QLASSIC can drive towards

improving the quality of project performance

as well as enhance the business opportunity

of a company.

2.4. Advantages of implementing Quality

Management System (QMS) in

construction

Generally the implementation of QMS in construction projects is to integrate the

resources effectively towards improving the

quality performance of construction works.

This concurs with Abdul-Rahman (1997),

that quality management is a critical

79

component to the successful management of

construction projects. The common features

of construction projects usually have a

prescribed scope, schedule and budget to

produce quality ‘product’ (Aoieong, 2004).

The four common characteristics as outlined

for a given construction project are as follows:

Each project is unique and not

repetitious.

A project works against schedules and

budgets to produce a specific result.

The construction team cuts across many organizational and functional lines that

involve virtually every department in

the company.

Projects come in various shapes, sizes

and complexities.

With the emergence globalization economy,

the local contractors need to compete with

foreign contractors for market share. In this

scenario contractors with effective QMS

may have the advantage to survive. As a

result a well established QMS enable the

contractors to improve the management

capacity and capability to produce a

desirable quality product or service, is

becoming the most important decision in

business nowadays (Abdulah, 2004). The

tools and methods used to manage QMS have emerged from those based on statistical

techniques, quality circles, quality standards

to those broadly categorized under the label

of total control/management (Lee et al.,

1999).

Based on literature review many researchers

have reported the advantages in

implementing QMS in construction

companies. (Djebarni and Eltigani, 1996).

Based on these reports, Mat Naim Abdulah

(2004), had summarised the list of

advantages as follows:

a) communication would be improved

b) reduce rework

c) time and money would be saved

d) increase work performance andincrease

market share

Based on a survey in Hong Kong (Lee,

1998), the benefits derived by the ISO

certified firms are achieving better team

spirit, having fewer staff conflicts, reducing

wastage, increasing efficiency, improving

sales through new customers and getting less

customer complaints. About a similar survey

conducted in Malaysia (Rosli et al., 2009) found out that implementing ISO QMS can

tantamount to improving project productivity

as well as enhancing company

competitiveness.

Taking into account the result of the survey

conducted locally (Chen, 2007) discovered that among the significant areas of

improvement at project level by Malaysian

contractors after having certified to ISO

QMS are listed below:

Improve storage and traceability of

project quality records

More organized and systematic

submission of VOs

More organized of inspection

Improve overall site management

Improve testing and commissioning

activities

Facilitate the preparation of handing

over project

Improve control of construction

drawings on site

In view of the above explanation denoted

QMS incorporated practices that can

generally influence the performance of the

organization. Lakhal et al. (2006),

discovered that there is a positive

relationship between the quality management practices and organizational

performance.

3. Problem statement

Quality has been identified as one of the

fundamental needs of clients (Kometa et al.,

1995; Chinyio et al., 1998). Hence the

craved for quality has and will always be the

prime concerned of the project stakeholders

in the construction industry (CIDB, 2009).

Quality is an integral element in construction

from its inception to completion (Alcock,

80

1994). Construction projects that are able to

be completed with an exceptional quality

will definitely able to delight their

customers. Quality on construction projects,

as well as project success, can be regarded as

the fulfillment of expectations (i.e. the

satisfaction) of those participants involved (Sanvido et al., 1992, Barrett, 2000).

Moreover quality can be translated into

durability in structural strength, efficiency in

functionality and less maintainability on the

construction output. In lieu of this, quality is

one of the areas that have been stressed in

the formulated Construction Industry Master

Plan (CIMP), 2006-2015. The referred

blueprint has outlined seven Strategic

Thrusts (ST), which enable to nurture,

transform and elevate the construction

industry to a higher level. Strategic recommendations pertaining to quality is

spelled out under ST 3, which states that

‘Strives for the highest standard of quality,

safety and health, and environment

practices’ (CIDB, 2007). Apparently that had

warrant CIDB to develop several programs

that deemed to propagate quality in the

construction landscape. Among these

programs are QLASSIC, CIDB ISO 9001 Do

It Yourself (DIY) Scheme and promoting the

utilization of Industrialized Building System (IBS) are the three programs that can provide

significant impact on the quality in

construction. This research is focusing on

QLASSIC program in exploring its

potentiality to be integrated with the ISO

9001 QMS.

The review of the journals on project success

reveals that cost, time and quality are the

three basic and most important performance

indicators in construction projects (Chan and

Chan, 2004; Abdul-Rahman, 1993). Among

these three performance indicators cost and

time are comparatively easy to measure

quantitatively. For cost performance, the

main measurable indicator used is on

percentage of profit or loss where else for

the later commonly the measurable indicator used is percentage of delay or ahead of

schedule. But for quality performance there

are several measurable indicators used.

According to Chen (2007), the commonly

used physical metrics parameters by ISO

9001 certified contractors in measuring their

quality performance are % of project delay,

% on breakdown of NCR, % of material

wastage, lost time accidents (LTA) etc. However another distinctive measureable

indicator for quality performance in

construction is QLASSIC Score. The later is

one of the key deliverables derived from

QLASSIC which denotes the level of quality

of the assessed construction project. In view

of this QLASSIC can be considered as an

assessment tool. Literally QLASSIC can be

used to measure the effectiveness of the

established ISO 9001 QMS in managing the

construction projects. This led to one

research question that is whether there is any correlation in practicing ISO 9001 QMS

principles and the achievement of QLASSIC

Score. However not many studies have been

undertaken to ascertain the relationship

QLASSIC with ISO 9001 QMS.

Notwithstanding that fact that one of the

proponents in this research is to conduct an

empirical study to ascertain the relationship

of practicing ISO 9001 QMS principles to

the achievement of QLASSIC Score.

Furthermore this research is intended to provide the solution in integrating QLASSIC

with ISO 9001 QMS which will facilitate the

ISO 9001 certified contractors to achieve

relatively high QLASSIC Score. Apart from

that this research will also examine the

expected business outcomes for ISO 9001

certified contractors that are able to

consistently attained high QLASSIC Score.

ISO 9001 QMS was developed based on 8

internationally accepted quality management

principles. These principles are well

embedded among the clauses in the ISO

9001 QMS requirements. However these

clauses in ISO 9001 are generic in nature so

as to be applicable to all sectors of economic

activities. In general the requirements of ISO

9001:2008 QMS are divided into 5 main clauses. Under each of these clauses is

further divided in sub clauses. Altogether

81

there are almost 25 sub clauses.

Conformance to some of these clauses may

have direct positive impact on QLASSIC

Score. The related question is conformance

to which clauses that can have a significant

impact on QLASSIC performance. This is

the key area that is going to be investigated in this research. In addition this research is to

take an effort to interpret the clauses of ISO

9001 requirements tailored to quality

activities in construction so that it can be

easily understandable by the construction

community.

QLASSIC report generated enormous data

that can be used to analyze in determining

potential areas for improvement that can lead

to continual improvement in projects

performance. Hence ISO 9001 certified

contractors should leverage QLASSIC for

continual improvement. The requirement on

the later is stipulated under clause 8.5.1 of

ISO 9001:2008 QMS. The related research

question arise is to what extend QLASSIS is

been used as continual improvement tool by ISO 9001 certified contractors. If there is a

poor usage of QLASSIC for continual

improvement what are the probable factors?

In view of this that this research is also to

observe on the level of knowledge and

practices of using QLASSIC for continual

improvement by ISO 9001 certified

contractors.

4. Research objectives

The objectives of this research are as

follows:

1) To observe the level of knowledge and

practices of using QLASSIC for

continual improvement in the

established ISO 9001 QMS 2) To identify the relevant clauses of ISO

9001:2008 that can be associated with

the significant impact on QLASSIC

Score.

3) To determine the relevant quality

construction activities that can be

related to the respective clauses of ISO

9001:2008

4) To investigate the relationship on

practicing ISO 9001 QMS principles

with the achievement of QLASSIC Score

5) To examine the relationship of expected

business outcomes to ISO 9001 certified

contractors that are able to consistently

attained high QLASSIC Scores

5. Scope of study

The scope of this study shall be confined to

the following:

1) The main focus of this research is to integrate QLASSIC with ISO 9001

QMS

2) This study shall confine to building

construction works with reference

mainly on CIS 7:2006 document

3) The collection of data preferably to

contractors and developers that are

either certified to ISO 9001:2008 QMS

or that have undertaken QLASSIC

assessment or both

4) The collections of data will be randomly made on active ISO 9001:2008 certified

contractors that are registered with

CIDB and primarily located in Selangor

and Kuala Lumpur.

5) The respondents may adopt a

lackadaisical approach in completing the

questionnaire forms

6) The discussion on common

terminologies related to quality system

will be limited to quality, quality

performance and quality management

system

6. Research methodology

In order to achieve the objectives of this study, a research process as shown in the

flowchart below:

82

Figure 2. Research Process

The research will be started by identifying

the broad research area which interest the

researcher and that have the potential

application to the construction industry.

Once the problem is well defined then

following the formulation of the theoretical

framework for the research has to be

executed. It entails in identifying the aim and

the objectives of the research, research

questionnaire, focus group workshop,

83

identifying the respondents, research

significance, research instruments etc. An

extensive literature review will be performed

at the initial stage. Reference will be made in

data system and websites to gather articles,

journals, periodicals, books, reports,

standards etc. The collection of primary data was done by using a structured

questionnaire. The questionnaire for this

research consisted of a few different types of

questions, namely open and closed

questions. The large part of this

questionnaire consisted of closed questions,

where the respondents were asked a question

and required to answer by choosing between

a limited numbers of answers. All data

collected will be analyzed using SPSS

software. In developing the model the

researcher will use statistical tools, namely Factor Analysis and Multiple Regression

Analysis (MRA). Subsequently all the

generated results will be compiled,

consolidated and validated in developing

predictive model on impact of practicing

ISO 9001 QMS principles to achievement of

QLASSIC Score.

7. Significance of study

Craved for quality has been the predominant

issue in the construction industry. In an

effort to address quality issues in

construction, CIDB had formulated two

relevant programs i.e. ISO 9001 QMS DIY

Scheme and QLASSIC. However there is lack of knowledge in the industry to

associate ISO 9001 QMS with QLASSIC to

ensure quality performance for a given

construction project. This study will provide

a significant contribution in integrating ISO

9001 QMS with QLASSIC. The output of

this study will enable to elevate the level of

quality in construction to a greater height. In

addition the output of this study can facilitate

ISO 9001 certified contractors to comply

with clause 8.4 and clause 8.5.1 under ISO

9001:2008 requirements. Hence it can enhance the effectiveness of the established

QMS. An effective QMS, quality related

problems can be eliminated and prevented

early stages prior to nonconforming

occurrences (Battikha, 2002a; Battikha

2002b). Furthermore another contribution of

this study deemed to improve on the

productivity and the image of the

construction industry.

8. Conclusion

ISO 9001 QMS is an internationally

recognized quality management regime.

Among the key areas emphasized by this

management protocol is quality performance measurement. QLASSIC is a quality

performance assessment tool introduced by

CIDB for assessing the level of quality for a

given construction project. Taking

cognizance of these statements potentially

there is a strong correlation between

QLASSIC and ISO 9001 QMS. However the

contemporary issue is lack of knowledge in

the construction industry to associate ISO

9001 QMS and QLASSIC in ensuring

achieving expected quality performance.

Hence this study is undertaken to address the said issue. The expected significant

contribution of this study would enable to

elevate the level quality in Malaysian

construction landscape to the next

dimension.

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Mukhtar Che Ali Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia mukhtar@cidb.gov.my

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